BFTG Wigan

[royalsteve]

First game back from uni, really enjoyed it. Very exciting and but for Alex Pearce we probably would have come away with a point or three.

McCarthy - 7 - Distribution was much improved, excellent kung-fu save.
Gunter - 7 - Very confident performance with the obligatory crap pass near the end. Decent attacking threat.
Pearce - 3 - Woeful, I have no idea what he was trying to do for the second goal and yet I could see it coming from a mile off. Very poor performance.
Gorkss - 6.5 - Really liked him today, great in the air, calm with the ball at his feet. Wasn't great for the first goal but other than that looked like the player that got us promoted.
Cummings - 4 - Started brightly until the fans got on his back for no reason and confidence dropped like a stone. He was out of position to be fair.
Drenthe - 6.5 - Pretty exciting at times, but very frustrating at others. Didn't look fit.
Guthrie - 7 - Very frustrating. The first half showed why people don't like him but in the second he was mercurial, his passing was brilliant. We are incredibly reliant on him, the whole second half was clearance, give it to Guthrie, ball in the box, clearance etc.
Williams - 6 - Good energy and looks decent enough. Should have been sent off and his temper could cost us.
McAnuff - 6.5 - One of the only good players in the first half, faded a little in the second but justified his position in the starting line up. Surprised he didn't go left-back when Obita came on.
Pog - 7.5 - Was really excited to see the Pog revolution and he had bags of confidence, held it up extremely well and could have had a couple. Our best striker.
Sharp - 5 - Was okay, took one off for the penalty howler.

Obita - 5 - Didn't notice him much
McCleary - 7.5 - Should definitely start. Our most dangerous winger.
Alf - N/A - as usual did absolutely nothing.

Adkins - 7 - Made some bold changes (we had more strikers than defenders towards the end) but they made the right impact. 4-4-2 wasn't right for this game.
Fans - 0 - Just a bunch of miserable gits. Booing when we keep possession then booing when we hoof it forward in response. Booing the full-backs taking throw-ins when no one is showing, then chanting the overrated Le Fondre's name just after Sharp missed the penalty and was low on confidence.
Ref - 9 - Dealt with the game really well, only wrong call was not sending Williams off.

don't agree about Cummins he was shocking from the start and fans got on hois back and he couldn't deal with it

[royalsteve]

Our throw ins deeply upset me.

out set pieces in general are woeful but so is our crossing - how many times are our crosses either over hit or hit the first man and when we do occasionally put in a decent cross no one is there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[royalsteve]

crosses in box poor until Mccleary came on.

Are you having a laugh? Couldn't beat the first man at all and one didn't even make it into the box, he missed it completely, it went along the edge of the area and almost out for a throw! Dreadful delivery which is the biggest flaw in his game

agreed to point but at least he got into a crossing position and some of his crosses were ok though most were woeful

[Cureton's Volley]

Obita 4 : Pretty awful-nothing worked for him obviously not coached as to what was required from him.

Yeah, that'll be why.......

Well, if you are insinuating he doesn't have the technical ability, why did your bum chum pick him?

[Avon Royal]

Obita 4 : Pretty awful-nothing worked for him obviously not coached as to what was required from him.

Yeah, that'll be why.......

Well, if you are insinuating he doesn't have the technical ability, why did your bum chum pick him?

He could just have had a bad game - it happens to all players.

You might want to give the homophobic insults a miss too.

[Cureton's Volley]

homophobic

It was merely a metaphor for your seemingly boundless affinity for a fellow man. Who suggested that being gay is wrong?

[sandman]

Who doesn't like the Simpsons?

[Cureton's Volley]

Who doesn't like the Simpsons?

Exactly

[Avon Royal]

homophobic

It was merely a metaphor for your seemingly boundless affinity for a fellow man.

Nonsense.

Floyd's patented drama-queen logic dictates that you sir, are a massive gay bashing nazi homophobe luddite.

[sandman]

Apart from Frank Grimes of course, he hate the Simpsons.

[3points]

really not sure what to make of yesterday. While I thought we were generally pretty poor (final ball lacking, poor set pieces - again), I quite enjoyed the gung ho tactics of the second half (quite reminiscent of some of the McDermott games). At least Adkins tried to win the game and we had a few chances including the penalty. I hope Adkins could see that our team felt much more comfortable attacking with pace rather than the slow methodical build up we've been pursuing in most games (and the first half). I thought we played some decent football in the second half.

Not sure about the final substitution though. ALF ended up almost playing in central midfield - actually felt quite sorry for him. Felt he should have done a direct swap for Sharp and kept Drenthe playing off the front two.

There really is no point in playing a passing game if all that entails is playing it between Guthrie, Pearce, Gorkss and McCarthy. At least Gorkss was sensible enough to get the ball out of our half rather than continue to play other people into trouble. It certainly wasn't pretty but in those conditions it was better to have the ball in their half than dicking around with it outside our own penalty box.

While I think Adkins preferred style is laudable I just don't think he has the type of player to implement it and there needs to be a major squad overhaul before it will happen (or we see more academy players being blooded).

Thought Jobi ran Pog close for MoM. I hope Pog is still with us come 1 February.

Guthrie and Williams in centre midfield just doesn't seem to be clicking. Neither are good at breaking up play or tracking midfield runners. When's Legs supposed to be fit? Or Baird? Or Karacan?

[rob the royal]

Our style of play seems to have pretty much outlawed crossing, and I'd be surprised if we've managed a dozen in the last two games, but both the goals we've scored in those games have come from... CROSSES.

Funnily enough last week we were just bemoaning the fact we hadn't seen a cross when someone finally put a ball in the box and we scored.

Not sure we're going to score many by just playing the ball around our back 5 and then hoofing it. If that's possession football it can do one.

[urz13]

He zipped loads in... No-one to feet on the end of it. Ah, maybe you had gone by then, got it. Apologies.

I don't think urz13 knows a good cross doesn't always mean one that will fall on someones head or foot. Sometimes a good cross is one that is put in the danger area for the striker to attack as once stated by mr shearer himself if my word ain't good enough. Don't worry though urz13 drenthe will come good and I'm sure he will get on the assist/goal chart very soon so there is no need to try and put McClearys game down to make him look better.

Not at all. You've summed up a good cross perfectly there, but McCleary didn't put in a single one yesterday. The one which missed the box entirely was especially awful as there were 4/5 players waiting for it inside the box. It's the biggest flaw in his game, just saying.

[P!ssed Off]

Guthrie and Williams in centre midfield just doesn't seem to be clicking. Neither are good at breaking up play or tracking midfield runners. When's Legs supposed to be fit? Or Baird? Or Karacan?

Williams is very inconsistent in terms of involvement.

Last 6 games
Against Wigan he had 30 touches over 90 minutes. Of the starting 11, only Sharp had less.
Against Bournemouth he had 33 touches over 90 minutes. Of the starting 11, only HRK had less (24 touches over 45 minutes).
Against Blackburn he came on at half time and had only 15 touches.

Against Charlton he had 38 touches in 64 minutes and got the assist.
Against Forest he had 57 touches in 90 minutes and was said to have played well.
Against Huddersfield he had to step up and get more involved due to Guthrie's suspension. 51 touches in 90 minutes.

I don't think it's a coincidence that of the games he has properly involved himself in we won all 3. In contrast the other 3 games where he went missing we lost 2 and drew 1.

In contrast his CM partner Guthrie has had between 73-90 touches in each of the 5 of the above games that he played in (played 90 minutes each match).

[3points]

I can see why McDermott didn't play Guthrie that much last year. You just feel like you need 3 in the middle when he plays - one to defend and pick up the scraps in front of the back four, the other surging into the box. If only we could have 12 on the pitch

[3points]

Thought Drenthe looked quite fit yesterday. Didn't seem to be blowing that hard before he went off and had covered a fair amount of ground too. Was surprised he was subbed actually.

[Cureton's Volley]

homophobic

It was merely a metaphor for your seemingly boundless affinity for a fellow man.

you sir, are a massive gay bashing nazi homophobe luddite.

Only you could be rattLOLed enough to accuse that of (probably) the only person on this board to have worked at a number of gay clubs in Brighton & Vauxhall, including 3 years selling lanyards (and getting very pissed!) at Brighton's Pride Festival whilst I was at Sussex Uni

[Cureton's Volley]

Our style of play seems to have pretty much outlawed crossing, and I'd be surprised if we've managed a dozen in the last two games, but both the goals we've scored in those games have come from... CROSSES.

Funnily enough last week we were just bemoaning the fact we hadn't seen a cross when someone finally put a ball in the box and we scored.

Not sure we're going to score many by just playing the ball around our back 5 and then hoofing it. If that's possession football it can do one.

[Avon Royal]

It was merely a metaphor for your seemingly boundless affinity for a fellow man.

you sir, are a massive gay bashing nazi homophobe luddite.

Only you could be rattLOLed enough to accuse that of (probably) the only person on this board to have worked at a number of gay clubs in Brighton & Vauxhall, including 3 years selling lanyards (and getting very pissed!) at Brighton's Pride Festival whilst I was at Sussex Uni

Yeah, nice selective quoting buddy - it's not as if anyone can just scroll up to read the bit that you've chopped off to completely change the context........

Not quite sure what point you are trying to prove, but you appear to be trying just a little too hard.

[Ian Royal]

Well that sucked. Although, actually, I thought we played fairly well after the first 20 - 25 minutes. Even the first 10 weren't particularly bad. It was just a 15 minute patch after their first goal where we basically couldn't put a foot right. Second home game in a row we've been punished for a silly mistake with virtually the oppositions first attack. Second home game in a row we've then gifted them a second fairly quickly after.

Think Adkins did himself tactically by doing nothing to counter Wigan's shape with three at the back and 5 in midfield. Which mean for that first half hour we had no space and could string nothing together. Beausejour once again caused us a lot of problems.

I was impressed with the reaction of the fans, bar the HT booing, which I thought was unhelpful given the improvement we'd shown in that last 15 minutes of the half. Good motivational booing to prevent the unnecessary pass back to McCarthy / CBs and the Gorkss aimless hoof upfield. Good motivational cheering when we actually passed it and put some pressure on Wigan. I assume it was being outnumbered in midfield that made us decide to revert to the tried and failed tactic of hitting it at Pog's head.

Much better, although still difficulty with the final ball and a lack of penetration, once we actually started passing it through the team again.

McCarthy - 6 don't think he had a shot with either goal. Some good saves. Bizzarely, both some of his best kicking and worst during the game.
Gunter - 6 a few very poor passes, too many hoofs, struggled against Beasejour, but generally coped fairly well once in the back three.
Cummings - 6 some good, some bad
Pearce - 6 thought he actually had a decent game, bar the horrendus mistake for their second goal
Gorkss - 6 not too bad defensively, wish he wouldn't punt it forward at every other opportunity.
Guthrie - 6 hit it long too much at the end and bypassed too much at the beginning. Needs to show more movement and desire to push us up through the middle, looking to release, move forward and then receive again.
Williams - 6 missing early on, a few mistakes. But got stuck in and much improved second half. Both he and Guthrie need to look at linking up going forward and then need to make more effort to attack the box late when we're getting somewhere.
Drenthe - 7 not the final product and not fit, but he has that desire to make things happen, that unpredictability and that change of pace and direction that creates chances.
McAnuff - 6 not his best game, some errors, but a real captain's performance, busting his arse to make up for his mistakes, to help out his teams mates. He's not the devasting attacker that McCleary can be, but he's often involved in our better passing and moves and he rarely lets you down like McCleary can.
Sharp - 5 worked hard, decent team play, but terrible penalty and missed a couple of other chances.
Pog - 7 MOTM worked really hard but got very little decent service early on. No one takes his place when he goes wide either, meaning we only have one person in the box often. Crap at winning headers though.

Obita - 7 coped well at fullback and in the back three
McCleary - 7 dangerous going forward down the wing
ALF - 6 didn't see much of what he did as I was at the wrong end. Can't help but think he'd have buried that penalty and earnt us a point though.

Another game I've come away from thinking that we could and should have won it, when we haven't. That sucks, but it tells me whilst we're not playing well, it won't take much improvement to really do well.

Oh, and can we please make more effort to cross the ball to a target, rather than just into a "dangerzone". When you've got that few people in the box most of the time, you can't just bang it in there. You have to look up and actually choose who you're attempting to pick out.